13% of firms to up grad hiring: poll

Companies’ plans for hiring new graduates is seeing a minor improvement, according to a survey by a labor market research institute.

Recruit Works Institute, an arm of Recruit Holdings Co., said Wednesday that 13.3 percent of the companies it surveyed are planning to increase recruitment of university and graduate-school students graduating in March 2015, up 3 percentage points from its poll last year.

The institute said the figure signals an improvement in companies’ willingness to hire people amid the economic recovery.

In the latest poll, 5.5 percent of respondents said they will cut the number of such recruits, down from 6.9 percent last year, while 47.5 percent said they are planning to hire the same number as the year before, compared with 47.6 percent last year.

It found that 24.1 percent have not yet decided, down from 25.8 percent, and that 9.5 percent will continue to hire no new graduates, up from 9.2 percent.

The October-November poll covered companies with a workforce of five people or more. A total of 4,931 firms responded.

The proportion of firms with less than 100 employees that will increase hiring came to 6.5 percent, against 17.3 percent for companies whose workforce size is between 2,000 and 5,000 people.

The corresponding proportion for large companies, defined as firms with a workforce of 5,000 or more, came to 18.5 percent.

The results show that the bigger the company, the stronger its willingness to hire university and graduate school graduates.

By industry, construction companies were found to have the strongest willingness to increase the number of such recruits, at 21.5 percent, followed by restaurants and other services companies, at 21.1 percent.